Williams & Harris Shared History Centre

All Collections

Calgary’s heritage buildings are a treasure, however in the past 100 years many structures have been lost to fire, decay, or gentrification. An early advocate for preserving Calgary’s history, Alison Jackson (1912-1987) began photo-documenting the heritage buildings at-risk of demolition. This collection comprises primarily of …

Thanks to literary advocate Annie Davidson,the Calgary Women’s Literary Club, and a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, Calgary Public Library’s Memorial Park branch (1221 2 St. S.W.) was the first public library in Alberta when it opened in 1912. Since then the Library has seen many changes: the expansion of Calgary was met with new …

The Century Homes Calgary project was a grassroots initiative celebrating houses built during Calgary’s first building boom in 1912. This project was led by the Calgary Heritage Initiative along with the participation of Calgary Public Library, Federation of Calgary Communities, Calgary Heritage Authority, Cliff Bungalow–Mission …

The success of Century Homes Calgary in 2012 encouraged a repeat celebration in 2013, which ran from July 26 to August 5. The flood of June 2013 affected many historic homes in the inner city, highlighting the fragility of many of these heritage properties.

The Calgary Heritage Authority documents items on the City of Calgary’s Inventory of Evaluated Historic Sites. These photographs are an important resource for researchers who need detailed building information that might otherwise be lost, particularly if the building has been demolished.